Paris_ The Collected Traveler - Barrie Kerper [200]
Leading to the Place de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, the Pont d’Arcole is a serene-looking green iron bridge with a tumultuous history. It was built as a suspension footbridge in 1828, just in time for the 1830 Revolution. One story about its name is that a young revolutionary, under fire from the Hôtel de Ville, ran onto the bridge and planted the flag atop one of its towers, crying out before dying, “Remember, my friends, my name is Arcole!” A less romantic story is that it was named for Napoléon’s 1796 victory over the Austrians. Whichever is correct, the bridge’s destiny seems linked to war. It saw heavy fighting during the Commune in 1871 and, more happily, was the route the first troops of the Liberation took to the Hôtel de Ville in August 1944.
The Pont Louis-Philippe, named for the king who laid its first stone in 1833, leads to one of the loveliest spots in Paris, the Île Saint-Louis. Cross this bridge to the island, turning left onto the Quai de Bourbon, where splendid hôtels particuliers face the river.
First developed in the early seventeenth century by Christophe Marie, the largely residential Île Saint-Louis-boasts Paris’s second-oldest bridge, named the Pont Marie after its builder. Completed in 1635, the bridge looks much the same today as it did when Paris’s newly rich flocked here to build mansions that displayed their wealth. When part of it collapsed in 1658, twenty houses fell into the river and sixty lives were lost, a tragedy that led to the law banning all construction on the city’s bridges. The Pont Marie’s stone arches are decorated with empty niches complete with columns and pointed roofs, poignant reminders of the vanished houses.
Like the Pont Neuf, the Pont de Sully straddles both channels of the Seine. In the middle is a lovely garden, the last vestige of the former Hôtel de Bretonvilliers. This little park leads to the island’s tip and a view of the busy east end of the Seine. This same bridge also has a traffic light for boats. To see it, cross to the Left Bank, turn left onto the Quai Saint-Bernard, and look back at the bridge’s center arch. The Right Bank channel here is reserved for passenger craft; others must use the Left Bank side, and only at specific times. The light turns green for fifteen minutes every hour, from thirty-five to fifty minutes after the hour.
Retracing your steps, continue on the quai past the Pont de Sully to the next bridge, the Pont de la Tournelle. The original bridge, built in 1370, was the city’s third (after the Petit Pont and Grand Pont). It was named for a turret of the twelfth-century city wall that stood near it. Today’s graceful span dates from 1924, and its most notable feature is Paul Landowski’s soaring white statue of Sainte Geneviève, keeping watch over Paris as she did here in 451, when her prayers protected the city from Attila.
If you take the steps down from the Pont de la Tournelle behind Sainte Geneviève, you’ll find yourself at water level. From this wide quay, you can look between the islands to the bridge that joins them, the Pont Saint-Louis, a simple metal bridge that does not distract from the sight of Notre-Dame. But the best view of the cathedral is from the next bridge, the Pont de l’Archevêché; the classic view of its lovely curved nave and soaring flying buttresses.
The water-level promenade between the Pont de l’Archevêché and the Pont Saint-Michel is a magical place for bridge lovers. The traffic and energy of the city above seem very far away, the river is so narrow that the scale is very intimate, and your feet are almost in the water. Walking under the bridges gives you a new perspective—you can hear the soft splash of the river and feel its cool breath. And these bridges are so close together that at one point, the greenish copper arch of the Pont au Double frames the golden stone of